Academics

This advanced seminar focuses on the development of Zen (Japanese) Buddhism culminating in the work of Nishida and his influential Kyoto School of Zen Philosophy. The background in the Indian origins of Madhyamika dialectic introduced by Nagarjuna is traced through the Zen Master Dogen and into the flourishing of the modern Kyoto School founded by Nishida. The seminar focuses on texts by Dogen and on selected writings in the Kyoto School: Nishida, Nishitani and Abe. The seminar involves intensive discussion of the issues in a global context of philosophy. Nishida's thought is developed in dialogue with thinkers such as Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Sartre and Heidegger, Nagarjuna and others.